Francis Smith

Francis Smith (1723-1791) was a Major-General of the British Army who is best-known for commanding the British forces during most of the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1775.

Biography
Francis Smith was born in 1723, and he had a lengthy and varied career in the British Army. In 1775, as a Lieutenant-Colonel, he commanded the 10th Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment) on an expedition to Concord to search the town for Patriot supplies and weapons. Smith's departure led to John Parker's company of patriot militia assembling on Lexington Green, and Smith continued on to Concord with the main force as a contingent of light infantrymen under Lieutenant Jesse Adair headed to Lexington; thus, he was not present for the Battle of Lexington. As his troops finished searching Concord, Smith began the march back to Boston, but Parker and his militia avenged their defeat at Lexington by ambushing the withdrawing British troops. Smith was shot in the thigh and wounded, and he gave up his horse so that more badly wounded soldiers could use it. Governor Thomas Gage rewarded Smith's conduct with a promotion to full Colonel, and he was later promoted to Brigadier-General. Smith commanded a brigade at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and he also led the brigade at Newport, Rhode Island during the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778. He died in England in 1791.